Home schooling allows parents and family members to deliver content that they consider appropriate and important for their kids. Still, there is the reality that many home school students will enter the workforce and compete against students who attended larger institutions with more resources. How can families who have decided to home school add more breath and depth to courses at minimal cost? Below are five suggestions that can help make your home school courses more substantial and engaging.

1. Organize learning trips. To supplement the study of core subjects, organize exploratory trips to teach your kids real-world skills. For middle and high school students, organize trips to the bank. On these trips, have students open accounts, make basic transitions, and enquire about bank services and fees. Banking trips can work well with other math lessons. For elementary school students, organize trips to different food markets. Consider a chain grocery store, the farmers’ market, a kosher market, and a Chinese Deli. These trips can compliment lessons about budgeting, nutrition, or cultural cuisines. As a long-term goal, students can fundraise for out-of-state trips. These trips can be related to things they are studying (e.g. a fieldtrip to New York after a unit on immigration or a road trip through the state, chartered by your kids, after a course about geography and map reading).

2. Enroll in college. Courses at a community college can be an inexpensive way to add to your child’s learning. Consider enrolling your students in a community college for subjects such as literature or language. High-school-age students would especially benefit from such courses. Attending college courses will add texture to the school day. Additionally, attending these courses will offer accelerated study and it will give students exposure to a college environment. If community college is not an option, check within your network of family and friends for college professors. These professionals may be willing to give a lecture on a specific subject or allow your kids to sit in on a course.

3. Use the information superhighway. The Internet offers a host of resources than can make home schooling a breeze. From home school networks to online courses, there are many sites that can make your lessons more interactive and effective. For general home schooling resources, visit The Home School Mom’s website. For language study, consider purchasing a 1-year online subscription to Rosetta Stone. For beginning and intermediate math study, check out the resources on Math.com. For lesson plans and other teaching resources, check out Laura Candler’s website. (Search names to find websites).

4. Explore your community. Keeps abreast of speakers, performances, and exhibits by signing up for newsletters from local colleges, universities, and museums. You can organize a unit of study in preparation for an upcoming exhibit. Conversely, you can use a speaker’s visit or a performance to add levels of understanding to a unit of study you have already begun. PBS and NPR are two other great places to learn about events in your community.

5. Purchase plans. There is no need to re-invent the wheel, or lesson plans for that matter, when you can purchase them over the Internet. Websites such as Teachers Pay Teachers and We are Teachers offer a wide variety of lesson plans and curricula for purchase. These plans are especially useful when you are teaching the basics, such as paragraph writing or long division, or when you are teaching commonly read authors, such as Shakespeare or Toni Morrison.

Home schooling allows families a greater level of control over the content and the chronology of study. At the same time, families who choose to home school have the job of preparing students for a larger world context. To add texture and to give more breath and depth to your home school courses, use the suggestions listed above.

AUTHOR’S BIO

James Guilford has worked in education, as a teacher and a dean, for nearly a decade. He is the author of the young adult novel, THE PENCIL TEST. Guilford’s writing has appeared in The North American Review, Identity Envy, In The Fray, and other publications. Visit the author’s website at http://www.jamesguilford.com to learn more about his writing and his workshops. Purchase THE PENCIL TEST on Amazon ( http://www.amazon.com/Pencil-Test-James-Guilford/dp/1440166439 ) or at other booksellers.

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The number of people undertaking home study courses is set to rise, with growing numbers looking to distance learning as an effective way of improving their knowledge and skill set.

Home study is becoming the most effective way of learning for many people, due to the adaptability of the courses to fit around the needs and personal timetables of students.

And its rise can be linked to the spiralling costs associated with gaining a university education – particularly important during these recession hit times.

Of all the learning options available – full and part-time university degrees, night classes and college courses – home study is amongst the most flexible, as the student sets the timetable not the lecturers or teachers who run the course.

That makes it easy for students to start learning on their terms by fitting their study around the demands of family life and working hours.

Home study courses are available for all manner of subjects, from the common GCSEs and A Levels through to more specialist training covering aspects of management, accountancy and bookkeeping, communication skills, childcare, health and fitness, education, health and fitness plus much more.

Undertaking these courses can bring a number of benefits. As well as improving knowledge and increasing skills within a chosen discipline, home study can lead to a more important role in the workplace.

Likewise, updated CVs featuring new courses and degrees put applicants in a positive light and can make them a more attractive proposition to potential employees.

This is particularly important at a time when unemployment figures are rising. Anything that that can be done to make a CV stand out is essential, due to the fierce competition for each and every vacancy.

Home study courses may have been available for many years but they are currently coming to the fore – not only due to their adaptability to personal circumstances but also through learning institutes understanding how to utilise the benefits of the Internet.

Now distance learning can be delivered through an Internet connection, with dedicated learning websites offering lectures and resources and some even delivering podcasted discussions. Email has also revolutionised communications, making it easy to get in touch with lecturers and tutors for advice.

In fact, so successful has the impact on the web been on distance learning that it has been mooted that in the near future that all university learning could be delivered in this format – certainly the Internet is set to continue having a major effect on the way in which learning is delivered.

Home study is becoming the method of choice for many looking to improve their knowledge and make themselves a more attractive candidate to potential employers.

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